Women of the Week: Kimberly Carroll

Body/Mind/Spirit coach Kimberly Carroll has a voice that is calm, but focused. It has a powerful quality to it that helps each person she speaks with realize how important it is to care for themselves in order to impact change in others. After listening to her speak, it’s easy to understand her transition from a career in radio and television into a profession that allows her to motivate and help people.

“So many women spend their lives meeting the needs of the people around them. They don’t focus on what makes them a force in the world. This may seem selfless, but ultimately it is a disservice to the world that they don’t step into their power,” Carroll says.

Carroll helps people uncover their true selves through an intensive seven-week program that is supposed to inspire them to find motivation and happiness in their lives. But, Carroll didn’t always want to be a motivational speaker. Originating from Brandon, Manitoba, she grew up immersed in music. She eventually moved to Toronto to take radio and television at Ryerson University.

“Between my second and third year in Ryerson, I was a news reporter in Brandon … [but] realized news wasn’t where I wanted to be,” Carroll says. “After I graduated, I began my career as a arts & entertainment reporter in Winnipeg on MTN, and moved on to some shows in Toronto and in Edmonton.” Carroll took a break in 2002 to travel the world, living in Australia, Amsterdam, and India doing music comedy street shows. She returned to Canada in 2004 to continue her broadcasting career at CBC Radio in Winnipeg, and as host of Take this House and Sell It. “I was the crazy redhead that ran around telling everyone to hurry up,” Carroll recounts while laughing.

Carroll had done well in Canadian radio and television, but her experience on Take this House and Sell It show made her crave answers to the bigger questions. “There is an attitude in television that it is the most important thing in the world. I don’t think television is bad though. I had a wonderful experience, but I wanted to go deeper,” Carroll says. “At a very early age, I was asking the big questions. Why am I here? What am I doing? You can imagine none of the other kids wanted to play with me.”

She began by seeking answers through an intense personal journey that led her to Denise Linn, a world leader and soul coach. Carroll never intended on making soul coaching her life’s work, but felt it was so powerful in her own life it was worth pursuing. “I joke that I sold my soul to television and became a coach to earn it back,” Carroll says. She began her own practice in 2009 and has been at it ever since.

An important element to her soul coaching is the importance of pursuing a life of animal activism as well. A lot of people don’t believe they can make a difference and don’t pursue advocacy work because of it. Carroll helps people to see that everyone can help in some way or another. “There is an epidemic of people who want to be of service but don’t think they can. My attitude is start now, start today and uses the uniqueness of you,” Carroll says. “Start in small little bite sized ways. The cure for cancer may never come, but you need to start right here with what you have.”

Carroll is an avid activist herself, combining her media skills with her passion for animals. She launched the “Why love one but eat the other” campaign that was featured on buses and subways in Toronto. It was later launched as a cross-country campaign with the animal rights group Mercy for Animals Canada, an organization she helped found.

Carroll has launched several initiatives, including launching the Toronto Vegetarian Foodbank in Toronto with her partner, Matt Noble that serves groceries to 230 people monthly. “We wanted to start an initiative that helped people and animals…we wanted to offer cruelty-free, healthy and eco-conscious food for people living under the poverty line,” Carroll says. “The food bank system often isn’t accommodating for vegans and vegetarians”

Many of Carroll’s clients are animal rights activists, people who have been traumatized by animal suffering. Carroll herself has developed a series of techniques that she shares with and teaches her clients on how to stay centered as an activist. “I often help women in animal protection. In order to be a power to be reckoned with, you need to pay attention to yourself,” Carroll says. “You can’t pour everything out without refuelling. I’ve learnt a lot of techniques on how to stay centered and charged as an activist.”

Carroll also enjoys reading and listening to music when she can find the time. She recently finished “The Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi, which traces the lineage of sisters born in Ghana over three hundred years and involved being in the slave trade. Carroll also loves listening to the Ani DiFranco and the Beastie Boys.

Carroll is an inspiring woman whose spirit and tenacity leads other women to see their own potential in making great change on this planet. Carroll’s work helps shift dreams into realities and her fiery spirit definitely empowers others. Everyone could do with an ounce of the positivity that Carroll emits.

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